I hope everything goes as you'd want on your sit in. Very exciting. Sounds like you're approaching the program with an appropriate level of realism which seems like a good idea to me. I'm envious of your willingness to take the risk and go for it. All good things require some amount of risk though so good on ya. Hope it all works out and I look forward to your future blogs teaching the rest of us 
Update: chasing a dream at game development school
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 On 02/21/2014 at 04:03 PM by Michael117 See More From This User » |
I planned on not doing any blogging during February so that I didn't get in the way of people's BaD efforts since I never participate, but as fate would have it this month has been exciting, scary, and necessitates an update for me after all. Before that I wanted to say that it's been nice to see the crazy amount of productivity from you guys during BaD, it's nice to see that yearly tradition continue. I could do with a little more cat pictures, but that's just a matter of taste, I love kitties.
People who have known me for a while both at 1UP and at Pixlbit know that I've been talking for years about my passion for game design, and for years it's been all talk and no action for a variety of personal and financial reasons. I think my bluffing might just end in 2014. This month I've been doing extensive on-campus and over-the-phone interviewing with reps and professors in the Game Software Development program at Westwood University here in Colorado. I was really skeptical of the school beforehand, the legitimacy of the program compared to other design schools, and the idea of investing a huge amount of money into such a specialized Bachelors degree, and if the skills could transfer into other jobs if needed since game development teams are very tight-knit, niche-y, and tough to get into even if you're qualified.
The people I've talked to at the school have been far more honest, pragmatic, and realistic than I ever expected. I thought they would be trying their best to sugar-coat reality, pull me into their system, and meet some kind of quota, but it's been quite the opposite. Our talks have gone on for hours on various days and we have discussed in depth the classes, the risks of the program, the job outlook, the failure rates, the price, degrees that might be more practical and less-expensive, and done research into if any other school would suit my intended career path better. I haven't enrolled yet because I still have a little research left to do, one of the programming instructors is having me come in next month to sit in on a 2-D graphics programming class he's teaching so I can get a feel for the material and ask his students some questions.
It turns out that the game development program they have is by far the most mathematically intensive program in the whole school, which doesn't surprise me, but it does mean a mountain of challenge for me because I've never taken linear algebra and calculus in high school or my previous college. I enjoy math but I work at a very slow pace. I took college algebra and got an 'A' so I think that with a ton of tutoring and a good support structure I just might be able to tackle the mountain of math classes I would need to complete the degree. I can't expect to get an 'A' in the higher math but with a ton of work I think I can pass.
This BS in Game Software Development focuses most heavily on programming. You start from fundamentals and work your way up through several classes until you're advanced, and then you begin doing applied programming by learning to build various engines from scratch, 2D and 3D graphics programming, tools building, scripting, testing, and more. By the time you graduate from the program you can basically program anything by the looks of it, and not just in game design. A lot of the students end up taking on big programming gigs at non-gaming companies making $50,000 a year on average while they continue to look for an entrance to the gaming industry. So you're chasing a dream. There's a high rate of kids who wash-out, graduates who don't get jobs in games for a long time and are over-qualified for most jobs, and a big price-tag.
Complete with all the risks and warning signs, it smells like the American dream to me. Maybe once I've done some more research, this program might be the one for me. If I end up going through with this I'll mobilize everything to focus on completing it. I'd have to move down to Denver, I've already been looking into apartments close to the university as well as commerce and resources in the surrounding areas. I'll be willing to starve a little for a few years, and pour my heart into studying and building. I've been bogged down in some personal and financial problems for long enough, I'm practically frothing at the mouth to take a huge risk and hunt a dream. I was fortunate enough to be born in America and I have a family that loves me, I don't want to waste my time squandering all the advantages and love life has gifted me. I guess we will see how it goes when I sit-in on that 2D graphics programming class next month.
Games I've been playing
Spelunky - Yep, mostly Spelunky still. Since the last update I just about beat the entire game. Twice in a row I made it to the secret Hell world and got all the way to the last level before the final boss, and died in the dumbest ways possible each time. I'm so close beating everything Spelunky has to throw at the player. I'm going to keep chipping away at it.
Team Fortress 2 - Last weekend I played a few matches of capture the flag on 2Fort. Still my favorite multiplayer game of all time, and I'm still proficient at it, it was super fun.
Halo 4 - After playing a bunch of TF2 I went and played some Halo multiplayer. I leveled up a bunch and shot a lot of Spartans in the head, it was a great time. Our team won more often than lost and I placed in the top 4 usually, so it went okay and I didn't leave depressed like I would sometimes.
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